I had an experience on the way to school this morning (I'm a senior in high school), that pretty well scared about 10 years out of me. My maverick has been in the body shop for about 2 weeks now, so I have been driving our '76 Mercury Comet 4 door(Yeah, I know, I got addicted to Mavericks and Comets! ) Anyway, it has front disc brakes as ya'll know, and good thing. I was heading into a pretty nasty curve, had slowed down to a descent speed, and was meeting a log truck. He was slowed down ready to STOP (I thought) and make a turn onto a little road there, and he waited untill I was RIGHT on top of him before this IDIOT turns right across my lane! It has been raining for months around here, the pavement was wet, I was in a BAD curve anyway, and traveling at highway speeds, so needless to say, when I punched the brakes they locked, and we began to slide and skid out of control. Just when it seemed sure that I was gonna die, I regained just enough control to swerve around the end of his trailer as it left the highway. Had I been in my '72 mav with drum brakes, there is absolutely NO way that I could have avoided hitting him. It really scared me. Then I got mad, fact is, I'm still PO'd. I'm gonna call his boss in the morning, and hopefully the driver will get a brain implant this week. . Anyway, ya'll all be careful, and I am now a FIRM believer in the difference in drum and disc brakes. If you can switch to discs DO IT. Anyway, ya'll take care, an I'm glad that I'm able to be sitting here typing this message. Take Care, Preston
wheewww i had the same problem awhile back except with deer!!!! i was on route home on a curvey rd. and this jeep was in front of me at night time, needless to say when the deer ran out in front of him he jammed on the brakes and swerved , i was a good distance behind him at first but i didnt know he had jammed on the brakes because both his brake lights were out!!!! anyway i jammed on my brakes and all 4 locked up(drum brakes) i went sliding off to the right down into a relatively shallow ditch came up into a carilion doctors office parking lot beside the rd. broadside.....i just let off the brakes and put her to the floor and the car whipped back around back into the ditch and onto the rd all in about 5 secs....on brand new tires.....thank god nothing was messed up except about 10,000 miles off my tire warranty. aww the elements try to get our cars just like politicians!!!! ~Dan~
Good miss!! not to rain on your parade, but locked up brakes are locked up brakes. When they lock, you will lose control. the 72 would have locked up just the same. be careful when it rains. If you had to lock up the brakes, you were going way tooo fast. I don't like to tell someone how to drive, but years of driving a 5.0 mustang with NO wet weather traction has made a good driver out of me. When it rains, and you are traveling on side streets like that, and you turn a corner, you should be going slow enough to stop with out locking them up.
Yeah that's what scared me. If I had been in my '72 I WOULD have hit him. But as for my speed, I was only doing 50 on a highway where 55 is the limit. He just turned across my lane when I was right on him. Reflex kicked in and I just nailed the brakes. When I slid, I tried to hold on and steer into the skid. Not fun. Ya'll take care. Preston
